At 6:48 AM 06/11/03, Brad Beyenhof wrote: [answering me] >> I once wrote a choral piece (well, started to write >> anyway...) that began >> with a tight C-D-F# that remained harmonically ambiguous for >> a few bars >> until the bass G joined and the suspension came down. > >How were you able to keep the C-D-F# ambiguous? The moment I hear that I >automatically think "D7," as all the elements for a functional dominant >seventh are there.
Yeah, I can see why one would think that. I guess I left out most of the story. Trimming out the details irrelevant to the question: It starts with just C, then the D is added with the C still holding, then the F# is added with the others still there, then the E is added. I didn't mention the E before, and I suppose that's what really makes it ambiguous. It also helps that the C is stressed as a sort of drone which makes it feel like the root tone. Ultimately the piece turns out to be in G with a lot of pandiatonic clustery stuff. The rhythm is pseudo-aleatoric at the beginning, with the six voices (SAATTB) overlapping in the middle range. Later they spread out wider. Harmony occasionally changes later, but it spends lengthy times with shifting clusters over a constant harmony. Sort of Meredith Monk-like, I guess. That's just the first section. The second situation is a little more traditional, and the third I never really wrote at all. It was a setting of Edna St Vincent Millay's "Elegy", but there's a lot of "ah ah" stuff before the text even begins. The G first arrives on "eyes". The C has already resolved down by then, so I guess the chord only becomes GM7sus4 in retrospect. Now that I think about it, I concede that my previous post isn't really an accurate description at all -- but the mention of the chord brought it immediately to mind. Hmm, now that you've got me recollecting about it, maybe I should dig it up and try to finish. It's been a few years since I thought about that one. I'm afraid I don't compose much anymore. mdl _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
